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England U20s name team to play Scotland in Six Nations

Academy

13 March 2019

Duncan Wood

Aaron Hinkley (c) JMP UK

England U20s head coach Steve Bates has named his side to play Scotland on Friday at Franklin’s Gardens (7.45pm, live on Sky Sports) in the final round of the 2019 U20s Six Nations Championship.

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Bates makes eight changes to the side that defeated Italy last Friday in Bedford.

Kai Owen, Samson Ma’asi and Joe Heyes come in to complete a new front row, while Alex Coles returns at lock.

Manu Vunipola starts at fly-half with Cameron Redpath and Ollie Lawrence named in midfield with Arron Reed coming in on the wing.

Tom Willis continues at captain while Tom de Glanville will also switch to full back for England.

On the bench hooker Alfie Barbeary, lock Jon Kpoku and scrum half Gus Warr are in line for their England U20s debuts.

Bates’ side have won two and lost two of their four games so far in the Championship, defeating France and Italy.

Steve Bates said:

“We feel this Friday is a good opportunity to take a closer look at the players who have not had that much involvement during the tournament, while also including those that are returning from Premiership duty. We are mindful that making too many changes will be disruptive so we’ve tried to keep them to a minimum.

“We are still developing our game and have very clear goals in terms of what we want to achieve on the field in terms of performance. What we’re looking for on Friday is a bit more continuity in our play and more consistency in our performance in terms of looking after the ball and managing the game.

“We’ve used a lot of players in the tournament and feel that will be beneficial for us going into the World Rugby U20 Championship in June. We can only take 28 players to the World Rugby U20 Championship and selection is going to be very difficult so for them every opportunity they have to impress us is an important one.”